The production and quality control processes used by semiconductor device manufacturers and material producers, among others, often require a precise knowledge of such wafer characteristics as flatness, thickness, resistivity, and orientation, among others. Automated, high throughput assembly-line systems may be employed to obtain the desired information. Typically, the wafers are aligned about their centers, and then moved to a wafer flatness station. The flatness station is operative to provide information representative of the degree of flatness, or deviation from a planar or other intended surface, for each wafer. Such information may be advantageously utilized, for example, during the various phases of photolithographic processing typically employed in electronic circuit device fabrication.